


Circles

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Archival Fic, Community: fictunes, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25209460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: Hesitate, vacillate, leave your mate...reincarnate. *hearts*
Relationships: Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo, Genjo Sanzo/Son Goku
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	Circles

**Author's Note:**

> Back to working on moving stuff over from the spambot...this one's from 2008 for a fictunes challenge, song prompt was David Holmes - "Don't Die Just Yet"

They were driving with the top down, the white convertible painted with neon streaks as they passed strip clubs and hotels, bars and gaudy marquees, the streets a snarl of flickering taillights and the staccato blare of horns. They'd been in the sticks the week before, tiny little towns the locals liked to call 'sleepy' and Sanzo liked to call 'comatose,' where after ten o'clock, you could barely find a bar open, much less a decent place to eat. Driving through small towns was like driving through ghost towns in reverse, streets populated by stubborn souls haunting crumbling remains they'd never break free of, coming to life at dawn and melting away at the first sign of dusk.

It was almost a relief to be back in the city again, suffocating in the stench of exhaust, hot asphalt, garbage and booze and each other. The people were just as ignorant and insular as they were in the country, but at least he could get his own brand of smokes here. They still got weird looks when they walked into a hotel and asked for a room--singular--but if the raised brow came with valet parking, who cared?

Up ahead the light turned yellow then red, Hakkai slowing a considerate three car lengths in advance. If he noticed the cacophony of angry horns at his back, the only sign was the faint smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth.

A trio of whores held down the corner on Sanzo's right, garish and brash and extravagantly underdressed, two blondes and one brunette with more hair than clothes. Those perfect ringlet curls were probably as fake as her tits, but for one sleep-hazed moment she reminded him of someone else, the illusion perfect until she opened her mouth.

"Hey, baby," she called, voice cigarette-and-whiskey harsh, the gleam in her eyes half mercenary, half intrigued. "You looking to party?"

"Holy shit," Gojyo muttered in the back seat. "Is she talking to _you_?"

Sanzo ignored them both, fixing his eyes straight ahead and trying to will the light green again.

"Aw, you shy, honey?" the whore asked, swaying up to the car with a bold, hip-swinging strut, mouth curving up in a feline smile. "Don't you worry, now...I'm sure you were _real_ good in a former life. Want to show me how good?"

"You've got to be kidding me," Gojyo said with a groan, not caring who heard him. "The robe's a fucking chick magnet? How does that work?"

"I assume it's the lure of the forbidden," Hakkai said mildly, "or perhaps the attraction of being in a position to...'teach,' shall we say. I understand it's a common fantasy."

"Well, hey," Gojyo said with a wicked smirk, "if you ever want to play teacher--"

"So, how 'bout it, baby?" She was leaning over the door now, sticking her tits out and smiling widely, lifting a hand as if she intended to run her cocked finger--dragon-lady talons painted fire-engine red--down the length of the sutra wrapped around his shoulders.

Before Sanzo could knock her hand aside, Goku woke with a startled snort and growled, low and animal and fierce.

Backing away so quickly she nearly tripped, the whore stared at Goku uneasily, embarrassment and confusion twisting her face into something ugly. Though he'd meant to glance disdainfully away, Sanzo's eyes narrowed as his vision swam, the world shifting without warning before he could get a grip. For a moment the ordinary prettiness of the woman's face was overlaid by more exotic planes, the dark traces of her eyeliner lengthening into strange patterns at the corners of eyes lit with a feral shine. When her red lips curled into a furious sneer, he found himself staring unsurprised at a mesh of sharp teeth, white and gleaming.

_Blink_ , and the vision was gone, the light was green, and Hakkai had his foot on the gas, the white convertible lunging forward, engine purring smugly.

"Fuck," he muttered, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes.

"Sanzo?" Goku asked behind him, the kid's voice gruff from sleep and scratchy from growling, the concern in his tone still gratingly obvious. "You okay?"

_Oh, sure_ , he felt like saying. _I'm just going crazy, that's all_.

"Go back to sleep, monkey," he said instead, refusing to so much as glance in the rearview mirror. It was past midnight, though he didn't know the exact time; if he was seeing things, it was just because he was tired, that was all.

His relatives' opinion on the matter meant fuck-all to him...except that he was out here anyway, heading west with an entourage of gullible lunatics and tricked out like some kind of costume party reject. The fact that he was _comfortable_ in the robe didn't worry him in the slightest. Really.

" _It's traditional_ ," Kanzeon had told him, grinning a little as se adjusted the drape of the cloth at his shoulders, tweaked the edges of the sutra se'd insisted on throwing around his neck. It looked like an antique, and that had bothered him more than all hir teasing about 'finding himself,' the unfinished business se insisted he must have had in some previous life for his head to be so messed up in this one. He'd intended to leave both the sutra and the robe at the door, but then he'd gotten into an argument with the Unholy Trinity--the triplets, not the idiots he was traveling with--and by the time he'd stormed out, someone's credit card grudgingly tucked in his back pocket, he'd just...forgotten.

He hadn't remembered, in fact, until they were thirty miles down the road and Gojyo finally stopped staring long enough to ask if the robe meant he was qualified to perform a laying on of hands. By then it'd been too late to turn back around.

"Huh," Gojyo said after an uncomfortable few blocks, everyone quiet. Watching him, Sanzo thought, to see whether he'd crack. "And here I thought the priest thing would just get us in trouble."

"I don't think Sanzo's sect exists anymore," Hakkai offered. "No one's likely to object to him wearing the vestments."

"Nah, that's not what I meant...though we should probably stay away from airports. The guys in orange will either lynch him for making them look bad or kidnap him and make him their chief."

Scowling, Sanzo shoved his hands into his sleeves, twitching slightly when his fingers brushed something unexpected. When he pulled his hand free, he found himself holding a paper fan.

_How the hell did that get in there_?

"But seriously--dressed like that? I figured the whole trip would be one long string of bar fights. Either that or Social Services would form a posse in the name of Goku's virginity."

"Hey! You--you pervy _cockroach_!"

Sanzo gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to dignify that with a response.

"Wait a minute--are you _blushing_ , shrimp?"

"Huh? _No_!"

Hakkai glanced briefly at the rearview mirror, but his expression gave nothing away. Gojyo's low whistle was a different matter.

"Damn, Sanzo. Dressing funny is one thing, but I didn't think you were _that_ crazy."

He didn't stop to think, just turned around in his seat and swung, and there was just enough time to appreciate the way Gojyo's grin melted into startlement before the moron was ducking away, both hands shielding his stinging head.

The paper fan turned out to be exactly the right length to land a hit on the lanky redhead without too much effort on Sanzo's part.

"Ow! Hey! Where the fuck did you get that?"

"It came with the robe," Sanzo grated out as he turned back around, still angry but strangely satisfied.

"Serves you right," Goku muttered, and in the side mirror Sanzo watched the kid fold his arms with a huff, refusing to look at any of them. Gojyo hadn't been joking, not entirely; Goku really was blushing.

Not sure how he felt about that, Sanzo decided to ignore it, like he ignored the way Goku's eyes shone beast-gold all the time, though no one else seemed to notice it.

"Hmm. I think I see a hotel up ahead," Hakkai said, though they must have passed up a score of them already. "Perhaps we should get some sleep. I'm starting to feel like we're driving in circles."

Sanzo snorted quietly but didn't argue. He'd been feeling like that his entire life.


End file.
